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Our pilgrimages · On foot · 2015

Lourdes 2015

Dates
On foot
416 km
Days
16
Stages
16
The group arrives with a tall cross across an open space, with the woods behind; at the front, a girl in a wheelchair.

The route

On foot

The stops

  1. Barcelona24 July
  2. Terrassa24 July
  3. Montserrat25 July
  4. Jorba26 July
  5. Cervera27 July
  6. Castellserà28 July
  7. Castelló de Farfanya29 July
  8. Tamarite de Litera30 July
  9. Fonz31 July
  10. Torreciudad1 August
The other 7 stops
  1. Ligüerre de Cinca2 August
  2. Aínsa3 August
  3. Lafortunada4 August
  4. Pineta Valley5 August
  5. Gèdre6 August
  6. Pierrefitte-Nestalas7 August
  7. Lourdes8 August

Lourdes 2015, the first pilgrimage on foot

Sixteen stages from Barcelona to Lourdes, by way of Montserrat and across the Pyrenees: the group’s first pilgrimage on foot, and everyone who went came back for more.

In the summer of 2015, a group of 27 young people from the parishes of Sant Mateu and Sant Rafael made their first pilgrimage on foot: from Barcelona to the shrine of Lourdes, from 24 July to 8 August. There were sixteen stages, by way of Montserrat and across the Pyrenees, with an arrival at Torreciudad on 1 August. They were accompanied by the letters of Lolek, who told them what they found hardest about the pilgrimage.

It was no bed of roses. Alex, for whom Lourdes was a special shrine —it was his tenth year going there—, remembers that the first days were really hard and that the blisters, the chafing and the small injuries took their toll even on the most tenacious of the group. Little by little, though, the body got used to walking so many kilometres every day.

Pineta–Gèdre

The hardest day was 6 August, on the stage between Pineta and Gèdre. They got up at three in the morning, they went with a guide so as not to get lost in the mountains and, since there was no point the logistics team could reach, they carried everything they needed in their rucksacks. More than 30 kilometres and almost a thousand metres of ascent under the four o’clock sun, after almost two weeks on the way. And yet the group seemed happier than ever: everyone was looking out for the others and sharing the food and water that was left. “In all my life I have never seen a group so tired and, at the same time, so happy!”, writes Alex. Even the guide was lost for words.

God at the centre

For Alex, that way was the beginning of a rediscovery of the faith: a boy from a Catholic family, he had never asked himself why he believed. He remembers that “the centre of our pilgrimages has never been the way, nor the stages, nor the kilometres walked, but God, our Lord”, and that this doesn’t happen by magic: “For Jesus to be able to speak to you, you have to be willing to listen”.

The group came out of those fifteen days more united and with a lesson learnt: by putting God first from the start of the day, the way was much more bearable. The verdict in the pilgrimage’s presentation is clear: one hundred per cent of the young people who took part went on pilgrimage again.

Photos

How they lived it

  • “In my whole life I have never seen a group so tired and, at the same time, so happy!”

    From that day I remember not only the difficulty and the splendid views, but the way we treated one another: incredibly, after 10 days living together, more than 30 km covered that day, almost 1,000 metres of ascent under a fierce sun at four in the afternoon and without knowing what time we would reach our destination, the group seemed happier than ever. Everyone was looking out for the others, and they generously shared out the food and water we had left. In my whole life I have never seen a group so tired and, at the same time, so happy!

    Read it in full

    And I wasn’t the only one amazed by this: our guide himself was lost for words at the sight of a group of ordinary young people finishing their hard day’s walk with a big smile on their faces, ready to walk the next day after a well-deserved rest.

    Before finishing, it must be stressed that the centre of our pilgrimages has never been the way, nor the stages, nor the kilometres walked, but God, our Lord. In my case, the pilgrimage to Lourdes was a great success in this respect: it began my rediscovery of the Faith. Despite being a boy from a Catholic family with a Catholic upbringing, I had never really understood my faith before, nor asked myself why I believed. […]

    Alex

The chronicles

What we wrote along the way and afterwards, chronicle by chronicle.

  1. Rediscovering the faith6 April · Alex F.